Dental procedures, such as dental crown procedures, dental cap procedures, dental implant procedures, and/or the like, may require preparing a tooth by reshaping the tooth surface. An x-ray image may be taken to check the roots of the tooth, and when a root canal is not needed the tooth is reshaped. Support material may be used to fill up the tooth surface to support the crown. Once the surface is reshaped, an impression of the reshaped tooth structure may be acquired for preparing a dental restoration. For example, the tooth impression is used to make a dental crown at a specialized laboratory, sent to the dentist a few weeks later, and attached to the reshaped tooth during a second visit.
The tools that are used for reshaping are usually dental drills with dental burs attached to the drill for reshaping the tooth. The dentist chooses one of several available dental bur shapes, and files down the treated tooth with the dental bur to prepare the surface to receive the crown. The dental surgeon carefully moves the rotating dental bur across the tooth surface to remove some of the tooth material and reshape the tooth. The reshaped tooth for receiving a crown should have enough surface to support the interior of the crown for good mechanical support.
All crowns have a minimal thickness and may need some space to fit on the treated tooth to ensure that the crown has the same size as the original healthy tooth. The minimal thickness ensures the crown has adequate mechanical strength, such as for example a thickness of one or two millimeters. For example, porcelain crowns require enough ceramic thickness to reduce translucency such as 1.5 millimeters thickness, and thus a treated tooth needs to be filed down by at least 1.5 millimeter. The tooth reshaping may further require a tapering, so that a dental crown may be easily attached to the tooth. Additionally, a margin must be taken into account when reshaping a tooth, such as a shoulder, a chamfer, a bevel, and/or the like.
Similar procedures exist for dental overlays, dental ¾ crowns, dental implants, dental prostheses, prosthetic crown, and/or the like. As used herein, the term dental restoration means any artificial material used to restore a tooth structure, such as a dental crown, an inlay, an overlay, a dental implant, and the like.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the figures.